There is a term that is being used at the moment called "the great resignation" 

What is the great resignation? 

It's the assumption that, post covid, once companies start telling people to go back to the office people will resign.  Why would people do this?

- Like many of us who have worked from home for years, we see there is a great efficiency in the way we work.  I recently was asked to do a pitch to a Swiss bank, normally this would take me two days of travel and expense to spend an hour in a purely speculative situation.  Now I can sit at home and spend an hour our zoom.  This is a far better way to use my time.

- Many people have got used to working at home and purchased pets, here in London, my partner and I seem to be the only couple without a dog.

- Some people are close to retirement and having not had to commute on a dirty train that's full of germs, they have realised the quality of life is better if they retired, semi-retired or freelanced.

I could go on .... what does the research say? 

The research ...

Despite record layoffs in 2020, as I describe above, the pandemic had led many professionals to reassess their career goals and job satisfaction, with 40% of global workers considering leaving their employer before the end of the year.

Different research, same number, four in 10 people said they would look for another job if they are forced to return to the office full-time, according to a new analysis by the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics.

Sales roles are not immune to this trend – more specifically, the number of posted commercial roles has increased by 65% since the beginning of the year as employers recruit for both growth and replacement roles.

While many of the CEOs with whom we work have expressed concerns about how this dynamic will impact their growth plans, leading commercial organizations are already initiating systemic change to set their teams up for success.  One of those trends is the recognition that social has to come part of the sales mix.

Like it or not, social selling (some call it hybrid selling, some digital selling, some remote selling, some modern selling, some call it virtual selling) is the new normal – for both commercial teams and customers. A LinkedIn study on hybrid sales found that nearly half of sellers closed deals of $500,000 or more in the last year without ever meeting the buyer in-person – and customers are more than comfortable with this change. In fact, 50% of buyers say that remote work has made purchasing easier.

With this job change, how will this play out?

What I think will happen?

I think many of you reading this will say, I actually like being in the office, I like travelling, etc.  I know my partners 26 year old, likes the commaradie of the office and is desperate to go back.

I think it will be "the great merry-go-round" of jobs as people leave and people then take those jobs, leaving those jobs have to be filled.  A great time to be in recruitment. 

How can social selling help you navigate this?

We believe that the route to organisations transforming socially isn’t through a centrally run social media function but by empowering everyone across the organisation to be social. Everyone has a network of people with whom they are influential and teaching each person how to leverage this is the key to being successful on social both as an individual and an organisation.

Therefore we see our programmes as being exercises in behavioural change rather than simply training as we know from experience that given someone “social media training” rarely makes a difference to how they act and behave on social networks.

We have found there a 5 measures for this

•Visibility and recognition in the marketplace

•Achieving trusted advisor status to their clients and prospects

•Measurable pipeline, revenue and new logos growth

•Access to the best talent and skills and therefore becoming employer of choice in your chosen markets and topic areas

•Employee engagement and shared sense of purpose

What we want is more pipeline and sales!

Social selling will give you more pipeline and sales, we always see a 30% increase in revenue and a 40% reduction in the sales cycle, but what are the spin off benefits that will help you beat the "big resignation"?  

Well first, being the employer of choice, people will see what a great company you are.  You will be sharing your culture on social, this will attract the best talent. 

But also, social also creates a sense of purpose and well being within the team.  This will drive better retention. 

Of course, showing your sales people you care by investing in digital skills will also help you retain your best salespeople.

So who's doing this?

In case you missed it, the Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch have banned cold calling and have moved all their people to social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.

But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling?  Not according to Merrill Lynch.

"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"

The CRO (chief revenue officer), Richard Eltham of Namos Solutions, of one of clients posted a comment on LinkedIn about social selling. See here.

“Social selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind” 

Kevin Murray who is the Head of Sales at MacArtney Underwater Technology recently posted about his success with social selling here and wrote an article about the transformation that has happened in sales here.